8vo. pp. [16], 524, 71, [6], 7-144, [2], VII-XXIIII, 114, [6] (last blank). Signatures: ã8, A-Z8, Aa-Oo8, Pp4; aa-ij8; ẽ8, a-g8, h4. Early suede or deerskin, with ties. Title page engraved, with signature "C. de Mallery sculpsit." Engraved illustrations. Head pieces, engraved initials. Printed annotations. Three parts in one, second and third parts have separate fly-title pages, with device of a ship and the word "Lutetia" [Paris] on each. Parallel Greek text and Latin translation; preliminaries, notes and commentary chiefly in Latin. The name of the printer appears in "Extraict du privilege du Roy" p. [72]. Adams identifies the printer as Abel L'Angelier.

The first Opsopaeus (or Opsopäus) edition, the earliest definitive exposure of the Greek Sibylline prophecies as post-classical inventions by the careful philological researches of two scholars, Johannes Opsopaeus and Sébastien Châteillon. It includes the commentaries of Xystus Betuleius or Sixt Birck (Greek).

Content:

• v. 1. Onuphrii Panvinii Veronensis De sibyllis et carminibus sibyllinus liber; Sibyllarum elogia et testimonia ex veteribus auctoribus; Sibyllina oracula; Fragmenta sibyllinorum oraculorum; De sibyllinis libris, et eorundem inspectione [...]; D. Ioannis Opsopoei Notae in Sibyllina oracula, intersertis Xisti Betuleÿ & Joann. Castalionis annotationibus
• v. 2. Oraula magica Zoroastris cum scholiis Plethonis et Pselli nunc primum editi / studio Johannis Opsopoei
• v. 3 Oracula metric Iovis, Apollinis, Hecates, Serapidis, et aliorum deorum ac vatum tam virorum quam feminarum / a Iohanne Opsopoeo collecta; Astrampsychi oneirocriticon / a Ios. Scaligero.

This handsomely printed and illustrated critical edition was reprinted in 1607 (See Bib# 4102649/Fr# 59 in this collection).

Cf. A. Grafton, Joseph Scaliger. A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship, Oxford & New York, 1993, ii: p. 599, 703-05; R. Mortimer, Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts. Pt. 1 French 16th Century Books, Cambridge, 1964, no. 392 (her ‘Amsterdam 1589’ edition is a ghost, based on Bibliothèque Nationale miscataloguing); H. M. Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, 1501-1600, in Cambridge Libraries. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1967, O208; E. Havens, “Babelic Confusion. Literary Forgery and the Bibliotheca Fictiva,” in W. Stephens & E. Havens (eds.), Literary forgery in early modern Europe, 1450-1800, Baltimore, 2018, pp. 54-55, 71n43.

Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.

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